Progress journal for the creation of General Grievous' command ship, the Invisible Hand.

About this creation

The idea with this page is to keep something of a journal for the construction of my first large scale MOC, General Grievous' Invisible Hand. Looking at others' creations, I often find myself wondering how long it took, how difficult it might have actually been, and the steps involved. So I thought it might be fun to post some "progress reports" as this lengthy, and expensive creation trudges along...we'll see if I survive the process! (Also, there's always the hope that it may serve as a personal reminder to me never to attempt something so ludicrisly elaborate and difficult ever again. Although I tend not to listen to myself when stirred by some creative delusion of grandure!

So anyway, here goes a bold attempt at what may amount to nothin'. But then again, as Ferris Bueller said..."Only the meek get pinched. The bold survive!"

December 4, 2007

Welcome back to "Who's MOC Is It Anyway." The show where everything's made up (of Legos) and the Smileys don't matter. Yep, the smileys are like your Mom calling you to dinner when you're trying to put in that one last brick!

So we left off in the last entry with our hero (that'd be me) standing perilously on the precipice of disaster, staring with steely-eyed defiance into the face of hopeless oblivion! Okay, perhaps a smidge overly-dramatic...translation: I was about to hang this sucker and see if it was really going to work out or not. Not working out being defined as "the whole ship collapsing under its weight and smashing into a google-zillion pieces on the ground."

So is this entry's theme "You can fly, you can fly, you can fly," or "Under the circumstances, I'd say the ability to pilot this thing is irrelevant?" Well, as the teaser pic above would indicate, she's swingin' more than a desperate housewife. And now here are all of the gruesome details about the hanging, and what follows after (those of you with weak constitutions, might want to look away!)...

So before the big moment, I wanted to finish as much of the hull as possible. Here the remaining panels went on and, to my surprise, snapped VERY cleanly into place. Not so much due to good engineering on my part, but more thanks to a sizable helping of sheer dumb luck...but hey, I'll take it!

The ship is actually extremely light for its length. At exactly six feet long it currently weighs 23 pounds. The underside won't add too much more weight, and this allowed me to use fairly thin picture hanging wire. There are two wires coming from the very center of the ship's width at the locations indicated by the arrows.

The wires are four feet in length, and attach to a bar above the ship. This "hanging bar," in turn, has eyelets on the top and can be hung from chains that drop down from the ceiling. Moving the ship is just a matter of removing the bar from the chains, and carrying the whole thing by the hanging bar. Boy am I glad now that I kept the stupid thing hollow...(grunt)"It's a good thing (groan)you're not a big fat guy, or this'd be rrreaally difficult!!!"

The moment of truth. One word: YESSSSSSS!!!!

So after the paramedics arrived and got my heart pumping once again, it was time to make a quick sacrificial offering of thanks to the Lego Gods (which I did by chucking one of the neighborhood kids into a live vocano we have in our back yard), and then it was back to work. So here the hanging height was adjusted for better reach, and then a new design for attaching the ventral section was put into effect...you know...cause the old one, like...SUCKED!!!!

The original idea was to create a spine of bricks that would attatch to the underside of the ship, and the ventral panels would attach to that...but that immediately collapsed (insert explicatives!) and it was back to the drawing board to come up with this method (which seems to be working). I attached bricks to the underside of the ship, then attached Technic bricks to the very bottom, sort of like a segmented spine...

...Technic bricks were also attached to the panels, the Technic brick's holes were matched up, then axles run through the holes to hold things in place, and...

Viola! The front section of the ship's ventral portion fell into place. Okay...actually it didn't quite "fall" into place...it was more like...brutally forced into place, kicking and screaming, adamantly refusing to cooperate in any way, shape, or form. (Honestly it was a royal pain to get everything lined up and held there without it falling apart, while simultaneously trying to run those axles through holes I could barely reach, and definitely couldn't see!! Nevertheless, it finally came together.)

So now you're up to speed with where things stand at the moment. I'm currently messing around with prototypes for the last few sections while waiting on the appropriate parts from yet ANOTHER Bricklink order. This is a portion of the dome that attaches to the ventral section near the front of the ship. It will eventually be dark greys and dark bluish greys...

...and this is a design for the primary and secondary rear thrusters.

Well troops, that about does it for the journal entries. The next post, barring any unforseen catastrophes (and yes, there's always still time to screw it up!!), should be the finished MOC, complete with ship details, proper lighting, lots of pics (without the hideous basement background), my usual one or two photoshop-enhanced images, and a partridge in a pair tree.

Many thanks once more to those of you who've followed these entries and put up with my senseless babble. Look for the finished MOC sometime soon, and then in 2008...I don't know...maybe I'll try something big next time. Joking!! I'm Joking!!

Hey Mark, Zac here from Only BIG spaceships. I'm going off line for a while, I'm not sure how long. I have decided to make you a moderator in my absence. I should have done this sooner, lol, as I'm not sure if you can ad new people or not with that designation. We have a new person that wants to join, but I'm afraid his ships are a bit small for our group. Here is his page, http://www.mocpages.com/home.php/2172 I feel you will keep the integrity of the group for me while I am gone, Thanks, Zac. E-mail me at Zlowing@hotmail.com

I like it

Adam Jacomay

February 22, 2009

:O WOW!!!!!
:O PLEASE CHECK OUT MY STUFF!!!!!
THAT IS SOOOO COOL!!!!!
I WISH I HAD THAT MANY BRICKS!!!!! ONCE AGAIN- :O
:O :O WOW!!!!!

Hey Mark, i added another entrie in my construction of my Aurora Class ship. If you could can you take a look at it and offer some advice if you have any on how this si coming out and what i might want to do diffrently. Thanks

This this is a monster, how long did this take you to build, i ask this because i am going to try to make a ship pretty close to that size if my budget can afford it. The kind of ship i am going to try and make is an Aurora Class ship from Stargate, one of my favorite Sci-fi ships of all time. Do you have any advice on trying to make a ship of this size?

when do you hold services? And can I make my check payable to "The Mark Kelso's a LeGod Fellowship" I didn't bother to read all the previous posts, so please forgive me if somebody already said this, but, uh, are we over-compensating for "short"-"comings" in other areas or WHAT!? Regardless, this is ABSO-FRAKKIN-LUTELY AMAZING!!!!!
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The picture of your massive storage array is almost as amazing as your construction! As a burgeoning Adult Lego Enthusiast I'm curious to know what the cost of this ship was! Nice work; can't wait to see the finished product!

dang! you have quite a lot of patience. is this still mocpages' biggest ship or did daniel jassim
get it with his 30 pound ship? ps: i was the neighborhood kid you threw into the volcano! curse you! just kidding, though i did used to live in indiana. you probobly held this over you head looking like a puny version of hercules in front of a huge crowd that thinks it weighs like 1000 pounds! well, at least that's what i would do. later. ~sho

I've spend a very good time looking at all the construction journal. I knew this awesome masterpiece for a long time but never take a look at how it was built. It reminds me of a famous painting by Joan Miro ("La Ferme"), nine months of creation. You're a true genius too !

100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000/5!I could never build anything like that!check out my stuff!

good god, man! are you trying to kill me? you'd have more reviews if the people reading this didnt die in the process! im serious! you're wanted in several states for Murder, attempted murder, murder of the first degree... the list could go on. you have to be some kinda crazy to hang something like that... crazy like a fox! just kidding... but seriously!

ARE YOU INSANE???????????????????? YOU DONT HANG SOMETHING THAT HEAVY UP ON STRING!!!!! It's practically illegal!!!!!!! Anywho.....dont say i didn't warn you when it smashes into a googlezillion pieces. Your progress is quiete fast seeing as its your first time building the thing. Oh and GOOD LUCK!!

The 2 is JUST because the smiley's don't matter, like a dinner call when you want one more brick in. =) Seriously, this is wonderful. It would look great with the bottom, so good luck with that. I love how you made this thing, and I love your sense of humor.

Excelent job with this wonderful moc so far. I have loved the journel entries all up to this and still do. Your a true genious and darring designer and fellow moc builder. I applaud you for the brave steps you took to build this moc not to mention that but also hang it from the air and also sticking with it. I only hope one day I can do things like this myself. In the mean time I will continue to look toward you and your skill for inspiration. Great job the scale astounding the detail beautiful. Continue doing what you do and loving it. Good luck and I wish you no mishaps for I also wish to see you sucessful in your creation.

omfg dude...if i had that kind of cash laying around to buy all them pieces...id prolly make that too...and the errant venture...and the emperors fist...and the reliance.....and im getting carried away...but anywho....hell'ova job m8, she rocks! look out Anakin...the Lego CIS is boasting a new ship of power now!

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
nice ship it must of tooken a long time to build it. i could never build something like that. I'd give you a 100,000 out out of 5 if i could but i cant so i give you 5

Um... wow? I am not normally a fan of starwars MOCs (although I am a big Star Wars fan) but this is one of those few examples of a creation which is an incredible tribute to an awesome series of movies. You have a fantastic sense of form & shape & I can only imagine the issues with weight & stress you must be going through. I can't wait to see the finished product =D

Wow Mark, this ship is on its way to being perfect! I absolutely love mocs of big starwars ships, and this one my friend is definitly one of the best. Your attention to detail is pretty amazing dude!
Any plans to build a large minifig scale ship? I am sure if you built one it would probably rule.
And yes I know my photography skills aren't exactly up to par, I really have to work on that. But Great ship and thanks so much for good and honest reviews man!

my god, what an enormeous supply on bricks you have there! I've read about your bricklink orders... no wonder you live in a basement!!!
so...what are you going to do with the finished monstrosity? sell? show? crash?
oh, and excellent work on the hand, of course.

You're a true showman Kelso, saving the nail baiting climax for the end! I'd of thought you'd get your girlfriend/wife to lie down under the ship to break it's fall, just in case! Hey, I got an idea for your next project: Zap Brannigna's "Nimbus"....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Nimbus-Futurama.png

I like it

Bruno Vaiano

December 5, 2007

Guy, I can`t belive how this thing is incredible! I saw the other journals, and i can`t belive how big is the ship! don`t worry, my hearth almost blew up when I saw the photo of him on the air!
bruno

I like it

Sierk van Terwisga

December 5, 2007

Amazing. Voting anything less than 5/5 is a crime, simply because of the enormous effort you have clearly put into this MOC. I really hope to see it completed soon.

Man...I'm sort of disapointed, its really small...nah...just joshing ya, this is gigantic. A few studs longer and some of the little folks on this site could probably fit inside there. Wait a minute...is that how it holds together?

This entire model and the construction process is nothing short of amazing, but I can't believe you picked something like silly General Grievous's ship from Star Wars Episode III to pour THIS much work into. Surely you're getting paid for this? If not, I'd love to see you put this kind of work into cooler subject matter at some point. Oh well. Props anyways!

Lady Luck's and the Lego God's smiles were shining on you that 'hanging day'. Very nice job (a complete understatement) and I look forward to seeing the finished product. And yet another bad hand joke - so is true, what they say about guys with big hands? Or are they just compensating ;-) Lee.